At Infosys, our focus on Healthcare is aimed at radical progress in affordability, wellness, and patient-centricity. We believe technology is a catalyst for game-changing healthcare solutions. In this blog, we discuss challenges, ideas, innovations, and solutions for the healthcare economy.

What's next for Health IT - Trends for 2018

2016 saw the emergence of some
cutting-edge AI innovations in healthcare IT. With the repeal of Affordable
Care Act (ACT), adoption of AI diagnostics is expected to further accelerate
through 2017-18. The repeal will likely intensify patient demand for lower
healthcare costs in the wake of rising premiums. This points towards an
important role to be played by telehealth in making healthcare affordable.

The period will witness
greater emphasis on healthcare systems integrating telemedicine services
throughout their clinical operations. Hospitals have started to do this by
getting all or most of their telehealth needs outsourced to a single service
provider for increasing efficiencies.

98% of times, patient outcomes are based on
factors that occur outside the physician's premises. This explains the impact of
telemedicine on the future of healthcare.

What are the key HIT trends set to impact patientcare in
2017, 2018?

Studies indicate future
ready patients don't just want to test the waters but are willing to be regular
telehealth users - going for assessment, support, and even therapy using video
and other digital means. Over the next two years, telehealth will approach $1
billion mark in annual investments by fulfilling some critical patient care
needs.

Let's look at the three
areas where HIT trends are going to make a big impact:

1)Emergence of Telemental health for home therapy

Telemental health has
witnessed 45% increase in acceptance rates in rural US. Leading therapists say
patients are showing greater preference in using digital screens to see them
instead of personal visits. Telemental health is thus on its way to become a
household name in US by 2018.

Perceived as an alternative
to in-person sessions, it will occupy a prominent part in a mixed-bag of
therapies. In a well-known survey conducted by Mercer, it was found that close
to 59% of large employers offered insurance that covered telemedicine services.
To leverage this opportunity, all major telehealth companies are expected to
create specialized offerings for mental health too. Such programs are expected
to soon over ride physical visits to psychiatrists, psychologists and social
workers in the coming years.

2)Healthcare plans encouraging virtual home visits
for seniors

Though still nascent, virtual
visits for seniors is about to take off in a big way. Aversion to technology
and new medical practices have become a passé. Seniors are coming forward to
experience nursing programs that give assistance on remote diagnosis, treatment
and prescriptions for more than 60 common conditions like sinus, bladder
infections, etc. Service providers have already started informing seniors about
these programs by reaching them through social media.

Early this January one of
the largest insurers in the US launched virtual visits for more than 1.1
million people enrolled with them. It incidentally includes lot of seniors who use
the company's Medicare health plans. Lot of other health plan providers are also
expected to make the plunge follow the trail. According to a recent healthcare
report, the telehealth virtual visits market in the US is projected to reach
over $813 million in 2021.

3)Growing demand for home-based vital-sign
devices

Startups are expected to
bring many new device innovations within the patient's reach by 2018. These include
home lab testing devices capable of remote managing even chronic patient care.
These devices will allow clinical staff from one facility to see and treat
patients in other locations with absolute ease.

The industry will also
witness an explosion of downloadable digital apps for providers and patients
combined. Patients will get to experience low-cost and almost instant lab tests
that will allows them to get results straight away. Using computer analytics
future devices will also make suitable recommendations for preventive care to
patients.

With telehealth become
cheaper, it will also expectedly play a major role in the growth of small scale
health providers as well. It will help transform traditional bricks and mortar operations to bring more patients under their fold at
much lesser costs. Here once again, they will look to outsource selection,
installation, management, training and maintenance
of telehealth equipment while they would focus more on patients.

Overall, healthcare IT is headed
towards a future based on automation and artificial intelligence. Although
consumers are yet to fully understand how robotics and big data will help them
take decisions, the vision will certainly clear out as we approach 2018.